Love from NACRA... NADA..... (maybe you can get some winch grease to ease your pain)
You need to feel the love from the east coast nacra 20's who don't plan on going to Nacra sponsored nationals but want to race with better equipment… or at least don’t mind your using a new set of sails that “measure in”.
Find those guys... get 5 sets of Nacra sails measured... (Wonder how in the world they can be so different.) Figure out what the proper measurement should be, write them down, have Tony measure your masts and go get some decent sails for ¾ of the money. Publish how they are measured and copy the Tornado/F18 restrictions on sail material and measurement (no cuben fiber sails) so others can replicate the sail specs, While you are at it, spec a rule which keeps all of the other major hardware parts the same… eg rudders, boards and presto you are in love with 20 other Nacra 20* guys. You might even restrict class members to one set of sails a year… that way you won’t have an arms race. Some kind of measurement service might be needed… Probably cost you 20 per sail to get it measured by a qualified sail maker. Probably have to change the logo on the sail and perhaps the name to avoid copyright infringement though! (Sort of like Hobie not allowing you to call it a Hobie regatta if you allow open boats to race)
NOW... which class do you race in?
Your new sails measure the same as the Nacra sails but you are not class legal by NACRA's definition. So how about Open Chesapeake 20c… or the Annapolis 20c!
So…. Is there a problem with racing this new configuration?…. Well.. clubs accept a sanctioned class to race… Usually the regional sailing authority has some way to sanction the class. Since there is no Nacra 20 class now registered with any regional sailing authority in the country (to my knowledge)… why not create the new open minded class which allows both the old school and new school boats…
Jump through those hoops. You are then racing in a class…. But you are not going to performance nationals with this rig.!
What about Portsmouth, Well, on the bay, the sanctioned class is Beach Cats which uses Portsmouth rules for class designations. So, you need to jump through the Portsmouth class rule hoop.
To be legit. I would take those measurement rules, the names of the 20 guys who sign up.. send them to Darline and request a provisional rating identical to the Nacra 20 for the class... Open 20. Race 3 open regattas with other boats, send in the results and you have your 15 data points and you are street legal for the alter qualifier anywhere in the country.
Since we have ONE and ONLY one CFR20 racing in the world and eligible for the Alter qualifier, the precedent has been set!… You actually don’t even need to find the 20 other guys… Just do it, file the paperwork and you are on the ground floor of a sensible class rule for nacra 20’s….. Now… if you are the only one who does this… and you suck… your new rating will slowly drop because it is essentially your personal handicap rating… eventually … you should win half the time against your personal rating. If you are good… at least sailed to the original Nacra 20 rating and the sails are noticeably faster….. you should win immediately until the next year when your rating is adjusted and then because its still your personal handicap.. you should be able to match it about 50 percent of the time and win some more.
You may not be able to stay at the bar for too long though (ref Constantine)… Since this kind of sucks… its best to get the 20 guys to play ball with you. Now… its highly unlikely that you get big differences in performance… You probably get a well behaved sail that if you use it properly will behave for you. You might be faster or the same as the neighbor with a new set of performance sails…. Who knows… your challenge might get the pot stirred to the point that nacra pays to have the sails upgraded and conform to a standard.
